When comparing GrafX2 vs Tiled, the Slant community recommends GrafX2 for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D animation tools for game development?”GrafX2 is ranked 3rd while Tiled is ranked 6th.

Pros

Pro

Supports tileset addition and extraction

Pro

Scriptable using Lua

GrafX2 is scriptable using the Lua language, which can be used to automate tasks and add new functionality to it. The script library features advanced color reduction and enhancement tools, palette analysis, and much more.

Pro

Very large number of tools and effects

Pro

Supports many file formats

GrafX2 supports many file formats, including the popular gif and png, but also importing and exporting from deluxe paint, degas elite, and various other editors using custom formats.

Pro

Supports animations

The program has a basic support for animation using frames in newer versions. Graphics can be cloned and copied between frames and changed slightly.See here how to animate with GrapfX2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnq6zBZOqoM

Pro

Free, open source, and cross-platform

GrafX2 is totally free to use, copy, and modify. It's available on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Haiku, AROS, MorphOS, SkyOS, Syllable, Mint, and a few more systems. Basically anything is supported by the SDL library.

Pro

Has a great palette tool

You can create gradients from one color to another, work in either RGB or HSL color space, save and load palettes, sort and organize palettes, and even work on "color cycling" images.

Pro

Has a customizable UI with themes support

Theme UI style can easily be changed from settings including buttons and colors.

Pro

Palette Color Cycling

GraphX2 being based on older 256 bitmap software has inherited some tricks that modern pixel editors do not have . One of them being the ability to cycle color palette and produce animations and effects with it.

Pro

Multi-Platform

Not everyone uses the same operating system and why should they? Tiled supports Windows, Mac, and Linux so you can work in any environment you like. Also with daily builds you get to stay ahead of the curve!

Pro

Free and Opensource

Using the GPL license means you get to use this software free and are free to make changes to it as you see fit.

Pro

Unlimited Layers

Sometimes you need 20 layers to make something epic. Tiled lets you create as many layers as you need.

Pro

Use Shell Commands

Setup shell commands within Tiled so you can setup workflows for each of your games.

Pro

Supports Orthographic and Isometric tiles

Whether you want a straight on look at your world or a slightly skewed one Tiled has you covered.

Pro

Terrains

Setup boarders with your tilesets so making tiles provide the correct connections automatically. This feature will speed up your level creation.

Pro

Auto-Mapping

One of the coolest things is to create rules so you can automate the mapping process. Want to have certain tiles to always have a collider? Simply make a rule for it and it'll do it automatically. Speed up your mapping process with this feature.

Pro

Many engines already have support

A big list of engines already have support for Tiled provided by those in the community. See if the engine you use is already on the list.

Pro

Can create colliders and triggers within editor

Tiled makes it easy to setup triggers and colliders with its vector tools or you can set up a tile that’s invisible in your game. Change collider/trigger properties so you can access them within your game.

Pro

Tile size and image size do not have to match

Want to import a giant object but don’t want to split it up? Import it and place it the exact size you want it as one object.

Pro

Properties

Create properties for your map, layers, tilesets, tiles, and objects. Have the flexibility you need to create the best levels for your game.

Pro

Engine Agnostic

Tiled provides an easy solution for tile maps for any engine even the custom engine you are now making. This makes Tiled a very versatile tool for 2D games.

Cons

Con

Ancient interface

The interface looks and feels like it came out of a 20 year old commodore amiga.

Con

Must implement .tmx if your engine doesn’t support Tiled.

It’s not a huge deal but you do need to implement Tiled into your engine if you don’t have it. Dont be lazy just follow this guideline (https://github.com/bjorn/tiled/wiki/TMX-Map-Format) to get your game running.Must implement .tmx if your engine doesn’t support Tiled.